History: Eastern Airlines L-1011 (Ship 309 and 334)

Eastern L-1011 (C) Enid Grigg

Enid Grigg has a number of really nice shots of Easter Airlines L-1011s that she took when she worked on the L-1011 in 1979. Enid is an awesome photographer and I appreciate her allowing us to put these beautiful black and white pictures up here on the blog.

Eastern L-1011 (C) Enid Grigg

The image below gives you a pretty good idea just how spacious and L-1011 cockpit is.

Eastern L-1011 (C) Enid Grigg

 One thing that is very consistent are the stories from people who worked on, flew or maintained the L-1011: it was a truly awesome plane to fly on. The picture below shows the underfloor galley. Richard pointed out that you can see that this picture would have been taken during flight and during service because the first three meal carts on the right hand side (foreground) are facing backs out indicating that they are empty or had been used. The other carts in the back are still plugged in (coiled cord on top) to keep the meals warm. Above the carts are the galley ovens and above the ovens are the refrigerators.

Eastern L-1011 (C) Enid Grigg

Below the very spacious and elegant first class cabin in the L-1011.

Eastern L-1011 (C) Enid Grigg

Now for a few cockpit shots. The Eastern Airlines L-1011s had been configured with tapes for the engine instruments. This is a distinct difference for the L-1011s used by Delta. Delta configured the engine instruments as round instruments to keep a familiar instrumentation environment for it's Pilots. 

Eastern L-1011 (C) Enid Grigg

Eastern L-1011 (C) Enid Grigg

Eastern L-1011 (C) Enid Grigg

Another distinct feature of the Easter L-1011 is the configuration of the weather radar screens in to the main instrument panel. While placing the radar into the MIP was not uncommon, it was later configure further over the the side into the chart panel.

Eastern L-1011 (C) Enid Grigg

Eastern L-1011 (C) Enid Grigg

Images used with permission granted by Enid Grigg.